Jazz Articles about Dave Stryker

About Dave Stryker

Album Review

Brian Landrus: Plays Ellington & Strayhorn

Read "Plays Ellington & Strayhorn" reviewed by Angelo Leonardi

by Angelo Leonardi
December 5, 2024

In questo nuovo album, Brian Landrus esalta la magniloquenza della sua timbrica grave con l'ampia gamma di strumenti che usa: non solo i prediletti sax baritono e clarinetto basso ma sax basso, flauto basso, flauto contralto, clarinetto contralto, ottavino e vari altri. La scelta del celeberrimo songbook di Duke Ellington e Billy Strayhorn è piuttosto insidiosa, per la difficoltà di trovare una chiave di lettura originale in un repertorio abusato, ma Landrus ha trovato la sua via: «Ascoltando questi ...

Album Review

Brian Landrus: Plays Ellington & Strayhorn

Read "Plays Ellington & Strayhorn" reviewed by Jack Bowers

by Jack Bowers
November 30, 2024

When gathering material for a new recording, one time-honored rule of thumb is that it is hard to stray too far off course when revisiting the musical handiwork of renowned composer Duke Ellington and/or the Duke's virtuosic alter ego, Billy Strayhorn--even if one chooses to lead with an Ellington theme as relatively unknown as “Agra" from 1967's Far East Suite, which baritone saxophonist Brian Landrus does on Plays Ellington & Strayhorn, a graceful and stylish quartet date that also encompasses ...

Album Review

Gil Evans Remembered: Gil Evans Remembered (Live At The Cutting Room, NYC)

Read "Gil Evans Remembered (Live At The Cutting Room, NYC)" reviewed by Jack Kenny

by Jack Kenny
November 26, 2024

Few people have a better right to remember Gil Evans than these musicians. The serrated wail of this band enraptured, touched and torched the listeners. It is easy to see why musicians from the Monday Night Band would want to play, creating under Evans' beatific musical vision. It must have been inspiring. Most of the musicians on the album played sometime over the years at Sweet Basil from 1983 to Evans' death and even beyond. He loved the way that ...

Album Review

Dave Stryker: Groove Street

Read "Groove Street" reviewed by Richard J Salvucci

by Richard J Salvucci
September 14, 2024

This is a throwback recording, but in a very good way. Time was someone could get in a car on a weekend morning, roll the window down, turn the FM up and drive to a happy place. It really did not matter much where: the music got you there because it was just that kind of straight ahead, in your face, bliss is it to be young sort of thing. In a big city such as Philadelphia a jazz station ...

Album Review

The Dave Stryker Trio with Bob Mintzer: Groove Street

Read "Groove Street" reviewed by Pierre Giroux

by Pierre Giroux
January 12, 2024

The Dave Stryker Trio with tenor saxophonist Bob Mintzer is a captivating musical escapade. This collaboration not only showcases the talents of the two principals but also the two accompanying players, organist Jared Gold and drummer McClenty Hunter. Right from the initial notes of the opening track “Groove Street," a Dave Stryker original, the band sets itself up for success with Gold's classic organ shuffle as the launching pad. Stryker's guitar sizzles and Mintzer weaves a ...

Album Review

The Dave Stryker Trio: Groove Street

Read "Groove Street" reviewed by Jack Bowers

by Jack Bowers
December 25, 2023

Guitarist Dave Stryker's latest album, Groove Street, is in fact “The Dave Stryker Trio with Bob Mintzer," a combination that is a sure bet to enhance its merit and heighten its import--a sentiment that is equally true when applied to any album on which the acclaimed tenor saxophonist sits in. Stryker and Mintzer are longtime friends who somehow never recorded together, although Mintzer furnished the arrangements for Blue Soul, Stryker's splendid album with Germany's WDR Big Band. ...

Album Review

Dave Stryker: Prime

by Jack Bowers
February 21, 2023

Guitarist Dave Stryker, a ubiquitous presence on the New York scene (and elsewhere) for more than three decades as a leader or sideman, is also a prolific recording artist with more than 35 albums under his belt (and many more than that as member of various ensembles) in formats ranging from big band to trio. On Prime, he opts for the smaller arrangement, employing his long-time working group (Jared Gold, organ; McClenty Hunter, drums) to perform eight of Stryker's engaging ...